Professional Qualifications

Areas of expertise

Anna advises clients regularly on both contentious and non-contentious aspects of consumer protection law including obligations under the Fair Trading, Sale of Goods and Consumer Guarantees Acts. She frequently reviews promotional material and marketing strategy for legal compliance.

She has been routinely involved in drafting and commenting on commercial agreements and advising in relation to a range of commercial contract law issues with an emphasis on indemnity issues. She has advised major New Zealand corporates in a broad range of production and service related industries.

• Anna frequently reviews promotional material before release for a range of the firm's clients and advises in respect of product packaging, labelling and sales promotion schemes for clients
• Anna's litigation work has included responding to statutory notices to produce information and defending prosecutions under the Fair Trading Act brought by the Commerce Commission against clients including Bank of New Zealand, TrustPower and Damba Furniture
• She has also acted for a range of the firm's clients in the defence of proceedings brought by the Commerce Commission under the Commerce Act alleging such things as price fixing, market sharing and substantial lessening of competition. Those clients include Bank of New Zealand, Subritzky SeaLink Ltd (a ferry services provider) and United Air Lines
• She has represented a popular children's clothing manufacturer in the defence of allegations of registered design and trade mark infringement, breach of copyright and misleading advertising and labelling
• Anna appeared on behalf of Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd in two proceedings involving judicial review and an application for a declaration relating to the regulatory price paid by independent processors of raw milk, including preparation for the defence of appeals brought in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court
• She has assisted a major private equity client of the firm in relation to the assessment of warranty claims and the preparation of proceedings relating to breach of warranty under an agreement for the sale and purchase of an iconic New Zealand health supplements provider and she has advised in relation to the interface between legal regimes governing therapeutics and medicines in the same industry
• Anna has also advised a major client of the firm in relation to the judicial review by the High Court of decisions of the Takeovers and Market Surveillance Panels
• Anna recently assisted a significant New Zealand company operating in the natural resources sector to bring to a close allegations of breach of contract made by a number of joint venture partnersShe has managed the resolution of a number of complaints made to the Privacy and Health and Disability Commissioners and acted in the defence of allegations of age discrimination relating to insurance premia pricing and access to services

Seminars and publications

• Annual speaker at fair trading and advertising conferences covering topics such as advertising and marketing compliance, policy developments in fair trading, the interface between fair trading and consumer protections law and anti-trust or competition law
• “Air New Zealand Adverts Misleading” in Thomson Brookers, Accounting, Corporate and Tax Alert, 20 February 2006
• Contributing author on Thomson Brookers Compliance and Your Business in chapters relating to Sales and Marketing and Privacy law
• Authored article Unfair trading: Govt gives courts more clout, regulator more teeth, The Independent, 30 July 2003
• In 2001, under the supervision of Professor Michael Trebilcock, Anna completed postgraduate study in law and economics focusing on innovation, high technology industry and economic growth. While studying, she also undertook work for the public sector on aspects of Canadian regulation